Methods and system for automatic user-configurable steering parameter control

Abstract

A vehicle guidance system and method for automatically adjusting an amount of a user-configurable steering parameter applied to at least one steerable wheel of a vehicle. The vehicle guidance system may comprise a computing device for receiving a desired angle of the steerable wheel, measuring the actual angle of the steerable wheel, and comparing the actual angle with the desired angle. The computing device may then decrease the user-configurable steering parameter automatically if over-steering has occurred, meaning the actual angle of the wheel is determined to be greater than the desired angle of the wheel and angled in the same direction as the desired angle, or the computing device may increase the user-configurable steering parameter automatically if under-steering has occurred, meaning the actual angle of the wheel is determined to be less than the desired angle of the wheel or is angled in the opposite direction as the desired angle.

Having thus described an embodiment of the invention, what is claimed as new and desired to be protected by Letters Patent includes the following: 
     
       1. A vehicle guidance system for automatically tuning a user-configurable steering parameter applied to at least one steerable wheel of a vehicle, the system comprising:
 at least one memory storage component; 
 an angle measurement device for measuring the actual angle of the at least one steerable wheel of the vehicle for a plurality of points in time; 
 a computing device communicably coupled with the memory storage component and angle measurement device, wherein the computing device includes: 
 a control module having control algorithms for processing position information and desired path parameters and outputting a desired angle for each of a plurality of points in time; 
 a compensation module for receiving the desired angle and comparing the desired angle for each of the plurality of points in time with the actual angle of the steerable wheel for each of the plurality of points in time, determining if over-steering or under-steering has occurred, and outputting the user-configurable steering parameter based on the frequency at which over-steering or under-steering occurred over a pre-determined period of time, as recorded and stored in the memory storage component.